A sec­ond group of sol­diers from Guatemala ar­rived here on Sat­ur­day, bring­ing to 150, the to­tal num­ber of the con­tin­gent in the coun­try to fight armed gangs.

In a state­ment, the Guatemalan gov­ern­ment said all of the re­in­force­ments are from the coun­try’s mil­i­tary po­lice unit.

On ar­rival, the new sol­diers who pa­rad­ed on the tar­mac car­ry­ing their coun­try’s flag were wel­comed by God­frey Otunge, the Kenyan Com­man­der of the Multi­na­tion­al Mis­sion in Sup­port of the Hait­ian Na­tion­al Po­lice and the Deputy Com­man­der Colonel Kevron Hen­ry of the Ja­maica De­fense Force.

In wel­com­ing the new group, Otunge said they will in­crease the mis­sion’s ca­pac­i­ty to com­bat crim­i­nal groups.

“We are ready and we will con­tin­ue to be ready. The gangs will soon ex­pe­ri­ence our full de­ter­mi­na­tion,” said Otunge who added that the reign of armed gangs will end in 2025.

With the ar­rival of the Guatemalans, the Multi­na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Sup­port (MMS) work­force has in­creased by 36.5% in 48 hours and now has 590 po­lice/mil­i­tary per­son­nel, in­clud­ing 400 Kenyans, 150 Guatemalans, eight Sal­vado­rans, six Ba­hami­ans, 24 Ja­maicans and two Be­lizeans.

The MMS, is an in­ter­na­tion­al po­lice and mil­i­tary force ap­proved by the Unit­ed Na­tions Se­cu­ri­ty Coun­cil in Oc­to­ber 2023 to as­sist the gov­ern­ment of Haiti in restor­ing law and or­der amid wors­en­ing civ­il strife and gang vi­o­lence since 2018.